Burned
by BEN-Beyond the Elusive Nomads
Summary: In a hospital, Buffy finds her live changed irrevocably. Written for February Challenge at HC Bingo on LJ


**Title:** Burned  
**Medium:** Fic  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Warnings:** Language  
**Summary:** In a hospital, Buffy finds her live changed irrevocably.

The first thing she noticed was the beeping that never seemed to stop, a steady beat that intruded into her dreams even as she slept. It finally got so annoying, so repetitive, that she forced herself to wake up simply to find the source.

That's when she realized that she was in a hospital. That was when she realized she had no idea how she had gotten there. Her mind raced to put things together, but every times she felt she was about to make a connection it washed away. She groaned in exasperation.

"Doctor, the Patient is awake." A soft feminine voice said from her bedside. She turned her head and opened her eyes, blinking as she took in the sight of the dirty blonde nurse at her bedside. The nurse offered her a timid smile.

"H-Hello, Ms. Summers." She greeted, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a train." She said dryly, "Ah, sorry, but…what happened?"

The Nurse wasn't fazed by her question, "You were in the Flight 1534 Plane Crash. You've been in a coma for three months."

That didn't' ring any bells, but it felt right. She furrowed her eyebrows and sent a curious look to the nurse. "Oh. And, ah, who am I?"

.

She was Buffy Summers, 25 years old, heiress to a huge multi-million law firm owned by her father, and the widow of husband Liam O'Conner, who perished in the crash. According to Tara, her nurse, she was the only one to survive. She now had scars all along her body, and a particularly nasty scar that bisected her bottom lip. She'd also suffered a broken leg and a fractured wrist, but those were both healed while she was unconscious.

Three months after waking up she found herself walking into the hospital and asking for a job. She had gone back to her job before the accident, but it felt wrong. According to her father she had gone to school to become a nurse, and that information was enough to get her a job with a good pay check.

A week into the job she met Willow Rosenberg, a patient her age who suffered from Anemia and made constant trips to the hospital. They became fast friends and it was afterwards that she realized Tara McClay, her nurse while she was hospitalized, was Willows long-time girlfriend.

The week after that she met Xander Harris, who worked in the cafeteria and turned out to be Willow's long-time friend from high school. He was married to a shop owner named Anya who came into visit him every lunch break and made it very clear that he was taken.

That was when her life changed.

One day Buffy was walking down to the blood bank to get some blood for Willow's latest blood transfusion when the door creaked open and a long string of curses filled the room.

"Bloody buggerin' hell, bints lost of bleedin' mind!" a British voice grumbled. Buffy turned and blinked in surprise as a lean blonde entered the room. He was clearly not hospital personnel, but that was wiped from her mind as she spotted the nasty looking burn that spanned across his neck and under his shirt. She gasped, and his eyes left the bourbon clenched in his fist and landed on her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked, placing the blood back and stepping towards him to examine his burns. His mouth dropped open in surprise as she inspected him, not even fazed by his sudden appearance.

"Wha'?" He asked weakly.

"That's a really bad burn." Buffy said, biting lightly down on her lip, "You should go see a doctor."

He seemed to snap back into place then and jerked away from her touch, "No way." He growled, "I-"

Buffy interrupted him, "God, macho much? If you wont let a doctor see it then at least let me take a look at it. You could get infected."

His mouth dropped open as Buffy searched through her pockets and pulled out some ointment. At his curiously look she blushed and said, "I burned my arm on the stove last night." As an explanation.

"Oh." He said weakly.

"You're gonna need to take off your shirt." Buffy instructed. He did so with a curious expression, shrugging off his leather duster and pulling off his tight black tank. When she saw the extent of the burns she gasped.

"I don't think this is gonna be enough." She said with a frown, letting her fingers hover over the burn that stretched down the left half of his chest and ended just above his jeans. She sighed and stepped back, "I can go get some more if you just stay here." She said.

There was a long moment of silence where he just stared at her, his eyes scanning her face and looking for any sign of deceit. She stood firm, her hands fisted on her hips and her head cocked to the side. "Well?" she asked.

He sighed, "Fine, do what you want." He murmured. Buffy smiled brightly, shocking him, before hurrying out of the room to storage, where she wasted no time in grabbing a large tube of ointment. When she came back to where the mysterious man waited, there was an empty bag of blood by his side and his burns suddenly looked less intense. She hesitated in her step before stepping all the way in and stopping in front of him.

"This might hurt." She cautioned as she smeared ointment onto her hands. She glanced up at his face and blushed slightly, "I'm Buffy." She said.

"Spike." He offered. He hissed in pain as her hands gently brushed again his wounds, and she just hushed him gently.

"It'll be over soon." She offered.

"Bloody hell, that hurts." He groaned.

"Well what did you expect it to feel like?" she asked sarcastically. He laughed in surprise only to wince as her hands soothed a particularly harsh burn. "What happened?" she asked.

"Girlfriend threw me out." He offered. Buffy's eyebrows jumped into her hairline.

"What, so she set you on fire?" she asked, "Sounds like it's a good thing you're rid of her."

"She'll take me back." Spike said in a determined voice, his head tilted back and resting against the wall, "She always takes me back."

"She ever set you on fire before?" Buffy quipped, "Cuz if she has you might need some help for a completely different reason."

He surprised himself when he laughed, "Yeah, she's never been too right in the head. But that's what I loved about her."

"Well time to find someone else to love." She retorted, putting some more ointment on her fingertips as she gently soothed the burns on his chest.

"Sometimes I wish I could." Spike murmured. Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Please. It can't be so hard – you're good looking, I'm sure girls throw themselves at you on a regular basis."

"Yeah, but they end up as lunch." He said before he could stop himself. He tensed and watched her for a reaction, but she didn't even flinch.

"You're weird, you know that?" she said, smiling up at him, "Don't even know how you got in here, but I guess this'll be our little secret, huh?"

She was surprised when he smiled, and even more surprised when it made her heartbeat speed up and her skin flush. Ever since she had woken up she hadn't felt an attraction to another man, but this was different. It kind of scared her.

"Yeah." He agreed, "Our little secret."


End file.
